Matts travel blog: January 2009

Weather forecast:
Mon: 31 degrees, clear
Tue: 31 degrees, clear
Wed: 31 degrees, clear
Thur: 31 degrees, clear
Fri: 31 degrees, clear
Sat: 31 degrees, clear
Sun: 31 degrees, clear

over the last few months i have learned that cities are really one of my favourite places. a city is full of surprises, a place where human nature cannot be tamed or controlled. where all types of people co-exist and there is a niche for everyon, and there is always something happening somewhere.

its nice to be back in santiago, especially this time of year, when the weather is ideal. i can go out at night without a jacket, just one less thing to worry about.
I found a great hostel this time round, at only 7.000 pesos per night (9 euros or so)
and located very nicely between the city centre and the main nightclubbing area. i have been wandering around photographing the city and its strange goings on for the last couple of days and decided to accumulate the whole lot in one post. so here goes..

more big dogs

daily art exhibition in plaza de armas.

some sort of religious thing going on in the plaza de armas.

daily chess games in plaza de armas.

shoe polisher man

magician

kids play in the fountain in the midday heat.

punch & judy show

cafe haiti.

this is a chilean phenomeon known as "cafe con piernas" (coffee with legs).

business men get to enjoy their coffee in the company of short skirted waitresses.

a simple, if controversial idea that apparently has been a huge business success in chile.

the chap on the left doesnt seem to happy to be in the photograph.

the painters in the hostel always have a game of pool after they finish working. this layout as seen in the picture is a popular way to play pool in chile. placing the balls around the edge then both players attempt to pot the balls in numeric order.

in the middle of the city there is a huge hill or mountain called cerro sancristobal, you can take a cabel car up there to enjoy the views.

there are also two swimming pools on the hill.

out on the town... my current hostel is 5 minutes walk away from the "bella vista" neighbourhood which has about 20 nightclubs.

"La Feria" Nightclub, santiago. house & techno music.

"maestra vida" Salsa nightclub.

"maestra vida" form the oustide

iunsanely powerful stereo in shopping mall. built for reggaeton music!

and for those of you wondering what the hell "reggaton" is...

todays music

(ctrl & left clik to open in new window)

to hear correctly, use the type of stereo as seen above :-)

daddy yanky : Pose

Other links

Santiago wiki

Reggaeton wiki

i went to rio gallegos in an effort to get off the gringo trail and avoid the tourist prices, but it turned out that rio gallegos , though utterly boring , is just as expensive. so when i met up with paola and josefa we decide to make an excursion back up along the mountain range to make the most of the scenery. first we took a bus to calafate and then onto a small town called "el chalten" beside the Fitz roy mountain range. the landscape is truely beautiful in this part of the world. however form a cultural point of view there really isnt much to see. el chalten is like a purpose built hiking town which is still under construction for the most part and calafate is quite a tourist trap, the businesses are charging european prices and higher which is inconsistent with the argentinian economy. though it seems as though most of the shoppers who are tourists from the united states or europe seem not to notice or care.
also we discovered that lots of the hostels are giving out extra rip-off prices for "non-latino customers". so paola was permanently appointed with the job of calling hostels for prices. it was amusing however, arriving with paola to the hostels that had lied to me, causing an embarrasing moment for the receptionist.
on the last night before crossing the border back to puerto natales i decided i would splash out on an argentinian steak...and frankly .. it wasnt that great....... and not a patch on the whopper steak i had in la paz bolivia that im still regretting not taking a photograph of.

we had planned to follow "route 4o" up as fa as bariloche (also being referred to by argentine tourst industry as the che guevara route) but the bus companies and hotels were just charging way to much, so we dicided to ditch the che guevara route , assuming that che himself would do the same thing in our position.

unfortunatly it seems the reputaion of "fantastic prices, luxurious buses and epic steaks" is no longer applicable in the south of argentina (if it ever was)..as one old chap from beunos aires told me, the province of santa cruz is actually 3 times more expensive than buenos aires. it actually makes chile seem cheap!

argentina.... your letting me down... so im off back to chile, dont cry for me.

we did however have a really good time on our little adventure. little josefa took well to the travelling life. see fotos. all fotos below are of "el chalten"

che guevara sticker for sale in el chalten.
i suppose its worth pointing out that che, whos full name is "ernesto guevara lynch" is actually part irish. must have been the revolutionary part!
(dont believe me? .. see link below)
the name "che" by the way, is the argentine way of saying "man" or "guy". everybody is "che".